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Species composition and abundance of the shallow water fish community of Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

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Abstract

Projections show that climate change will lead to structural change in Arctic ecosystems. Studies project the extinction of local species and intense species invasion to the Arctic Ocean. A lack of basic biological data about the Arctic shallow water fish community will make it hard to assess whether these communities will change or not. Baseline studies in combination with future reassessments are needed to establish a basic knowledge about the change of these communities. This study provides a quantitative first time description of the shallow water fish community of Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. The fish assemblage in the depth range from 3 to 12 m was determined with respect to abundance and species composition. Among a total sample size of 2804 specimens, the presence of 12 fish species and one family (Liparidae) was detected. Myoxocephalus scorpius (shorthorn sculpin) (74.9 %), Gadus morhua (Atlantic cod) (17.2 %), and Gymnocanthus tricuspis (Arctic staghorn sculpin) (3.8 %) were identified as the most abundant species across all sampling sites. A significant relationship between algal coverage and fish abundance was detected. Furthermore, we demonstrated a fjord inward increase in biodiversity along the south shore that might be correlated with a change in hydrographic regime.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed at the International Arctic Environmental Research and Monitoring Facility in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen, Norway. We thank the crew of the AWIPEV Arctic Research Base for their great support of our fieldwork. Furthermore, we appreciate the helpful comments of the reviewers of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Michael Greenacre for statistical support.

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  1. Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Centre for Scientific Diving, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Kurpromenade 201, 27498, Helgoland, Germany

    Markus Brand & Philipp Fischer

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Correspondence to Markus Brand.

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This article belongs to the special issue on the “Kongsfjorden ecosystem—new views after more than a decade of research”, coordinated by Christian Wiencke and Haakon Hop.

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Brand, M., Fischer, P. Species composition and abundance of the shallow water fish community of Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. Polar Biol 39, 2155–2167 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-2022-y

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